This webzine is online since August 2010 and is completely dedicated to Electronic Music (EM) identified as the Berlin School style and its derived. You will find interviews but mostly reviews of ambient, sequenced and symphonic EM with a glimpse on other related genres. You have questions or want your music to be reviewed? Please read the 123 FAQ section attentively. Bear in mind the main purpose of this Blog. So welcome in and I hope it will guide you into the wonderful world of EM.

Realized on SynGate Wave, “Ecclesia” meets the expectations of the German label division with an impressive visit in music of the Cathedral Saint Gilles of Graz, Austria, composed by Richard Hasiba, better known under the name of Stan Dart. Recognized for his very melodious approach, Stan Dart is at a 2nd solo opus. And I must admit that's an impressive tour de force with about 2 hours of music which flirts with a New Synth-Pop, New Age and a rather comfortable EDM which is ideal for ears a little less adventurous. It's while working on his first solos album, Hometown Memories in 2016 which is inspired by Stan Dart's home town (Graz), that the Austrian musician plunged into the mysteries of this impressive cathedral with a very Gothic architecture. EM inspired by a church? That's the question asked by Stan Dart. And why not? The aficionados of Berlin School, as the England School (Robert Fox's Cathedral to name only this one), are used to the cathedral moods which encircle a sequencer-based style EM. Except that here we are not in the borders of Berlin School but rather in those of Enigma or yet ERA with, here and there, a weak but a weak link which ties to the atmospheres of the old German model of EM. And I tell it to you frankly, I spent a very good moment to savor an album which didn’t tell me that much at its first listening and which hides however some very beautiful moments.It's with a tick-tock from a clock that the ambiences of "Ecclesia I" infiltrate our listening room. The rhythm which comes of there is rather lively with a structure of mid-tempo where spin some slow stroboscopic effects and float murmurs of angels. There is a little suite of melodious chords which hangs onto our sense of hearing and which gets lost as the music wins in a techno rhythm pushed by violin wings. This melody will come back farther haunting again my listening which got lost when the music changed of register. "In Nomine (In the Name...)" follows with the same skeleton but in an approach more in the kind of New Synth-Pop, otherwise of good EDM. The breathes from the synth are rather attractive and drag us out of a universe which begun to graze my ears. But we always stay in the light and easily edible thing here. "Vita" changes the situation with a structure which is very near the IDM of Moonbooter. One likes it? You shall doubtless love "Vox Praeteritum (Voice from the Past)" which stars Lukas Hasiba on guitar, as well as the very EDM track "Sanctus". "Deus Misere (God Have Mercy)" is the first thing that caught my attention in “Ecclesia”. The rhythm is slow and sways to the beatings of the tom-toms. A very beautiful melody, attached by a delicate piano, pierces my eardrums and stays encrust deep there with its musical itch. The whole thing is wrapped of very nice beautiful ambiences which seem ideal for an evening fire in the Sahara. The Gregorian choirs a laEnigma, which are omnipresent in this double album, are concealed by a very beautiful melodic approach. It's a very mesmerizing title, as the mysterious "Hora Tenebrarum (The Dark Hour)", whose movement of sequences does very Berlin School and which also lay down a melody strummed in vibes deliciously mysterious.Between those two tracks there is "Malum (The Evil)" where the more or less ambient rhythm evokes a union between Synth Pop and New Age. The voice of Petra Bonmassar is in the tone. We also find it on "Via Laboriosa (The Ardous Way)" which is more theatrical and slightly more lively. To my surprise, the versions proposed without her participation, farther on the CD 2, have less flavor. "Ascensus (The Ascent)" is a track filled of very lugubrious moods, with strange gurgling, which gives cold in the back. "Hiems (Winter in the Heart)", which stars Mark Dorricott on piano, is a beautiful ballad in the pure style of Stan Dart. One gulps down easily and the melody eats our eardrums. "Lacrimosa Caeli" (The Lord is my Shepard)" begins the 2nd CD of “Ecclesia” with a liturgical slow tempo wrapped in a rather cinematographic envelope. The atmospheres are rather sober in a mixture of ERA and Enigma. If the monk chants are in Latin, the psalm is murmured in German by Hans Pock. "Exsurge Domine (Arise, O Lord)" is a nice little delicious title which mixes the mysteries of a Latin psalm in very Vangelis moods. The chants annoy me, but the music and the moods a laBlade Runner, a movie which is at the origin of the album Midnight, get the upper hand fast. "Ecclesia II" ends this opus with ecclesiastical character by an approach a little livelier than "Ecclesia I". After the instrumental versions of "Via Laboriosa" and "Malum", Stan Dart proposes a clearly more lounge, even sensual version, of "Vita", so concluding an album of which the diversity in the rhythms of EDM is dominated by this very Enigma / ERA approach and also by these obsessing melodies which are Stan Dart's signature.

mercredi 26 juillet 2017

“The Locked Book is a real gift for the fans of The Glimmer Room who were worried about Andy Condon's silence in the last years”

1 Mr. Price Remembers 4:142 Control Objects 7:243 Sleeping Observer 9:224 Base Room 4:095 Yours Sincerely, S.H. Glanville 4:06Silent Rookery ‎| Silentcd10(E.P. CD/DDL 29:25) ****(Ambient melodious EM)I am maybe out of my shoes, but I feel a movement of revival from The Glimmer Room. Quiet since A Return to Cromley Hall (in April 2013), except for a parallel project with The Long Night appeared in summer 2014, Andy Condon seems to take back the guides of the musical writing with projects introduced during his passages at the E-Scape Festival of 2016 and at the famous The Awakenings Festival in last April. Moreover on this matter, Andy Condon gives to all those who want to savor his music an extract completely free of charge on his Bandcamp site. “The Locked Book” comes to loop the loop of this trilogy in the form of E.P. begun with A Diary of Occurrences at the very end of 2010."Mr. Price Remembers" opens this E.P. of around thirty minutes, divided between 5 tracks, with a wave as discreet as the whisper of a bass line walking along walls. A movement of violin espouses this delicate curve on which are anchoring notes of a piano which cries in fascinating fluty chants, in orchestrations to twist the soul and finally in layers of voices. These layers which got loose from the orchestrations remind us that we listen The Glimmer Room. In sometimes pastoral but especially crepuscular atmospheres, "Mr. Price Remembers" inspires confidence for the fans of Andy Condon who are hungry of music since A Return to Cromley Hall some 4 years farther. A more tough, heavier and crawling line of bass is sculpturing the basis of what is an appearance of an ambient rhythm in "Control Objects". Arpeggios dance there naively, while a more austere layer is undulating such as a shadow in the night while releasing those perfumes of obsessing atmosphere which mark out the compositions of Andy Condon. Angelic choruses deepen this decoration while the harmonies which sparkle like specters are glittering like prism, uniting the darkness and the brightness on an air which is familiar to us. "Sleeping Observer" begins with banging of doors and steps which resound by climbing a long spiral staircase. Layers of voices whisper throughout this ascent, adding a veil of mysticism to this opening which is melting in a splendid harmonious decoration. Weaved in a synth which murmurs as a wet handkerchief of tears leaving the cheek of his owner, the melody floats with this obsessing link to our soul on a slow ambient rhythm where waltzes a pleiad of orchestral and electronic effects. This title is the equivalent of the wonderful The View from the Summerhouse from A Diary of Occurrences. To the greatness of The Glimmer Room! "Base Room" offers quite a different vibe with a good mid-tempo forged by nervous sequences which flicker around another delicate melody thrown in a structure a little bit spasmodic. Quieter and clearly more in ambient mode, "Yours Sincerely, S.H. Glanville" dips us back into The Glimmer Room's glaucous mysteries with an ambient music pushed by the impulses of a bass line and of the smooth orchestrations which are frozen there.“The Locked Book” is a real gift for the fans of The Glimmer Room who were worried about AndyCondon's silence in the last years. It's also a little opus which shows a good diversity in the compositions of the English musician and which looks strangely like A Diary of Occurrences, so looping wonderfully the loop of this trio of E.P. from The Glimmer Room.Sylvain Lupari (July 26th, 2017)synth&sequences.comYou will find this album on the Bandcamp page of The Glimmer Roomhere

lundi 24 juillet 2017

“A Return to Cromley Hall offers both of The Glimmer Room's faces with a music to capsize you the soul and with sound experiments which have allowed Andy Condon to reach the doors of fame”

1 A Return to Cromley Hall 21:022 Walking with Marie Lairre (Ross Baker Remix) 15:033 Walk to the Rectory (10 April 2013) 9:58Silent Rookery ‎– silentcd07(E.P. 46:03)***½Honestly, I've never seen this E.P. from The Glimmer Room pass in front of my ears. I who is an unconditional fan of Andy Condon music!? This is something that I couldn't forgive myself up until now that I also received another The Glimmer Room's mini album; The Locked Book. And it's around 3 years after A Diary of Occurrences that will come this suite about the mysterious house of Cromley Hall. “A Return to Cromley Hall” has seduced me straight out with the opening of the moods from the title-track and which has cooled my feelings with 2 soundscapes very thoughtful but also stripped of music and emotion.Steps on the pavement and distant sounds of vehicles on the road decorate the introduction of "A Return to Cromley Hall". If Andy Condon absolutely wanted to go away from the very mysterious and melancholic vibes of I Remain on A Diary of Occurrences, the first ringings of notes which pierce the heavy translucent fog of the opening is a return in the lands of AndyCondon's key work. Everything is set here to extend the 9 chapters of I Remain. Keyboard keys where the tone of glass ring with a mesmerizing melancholy, a line of bass which stimulates a wave-like and ambient rhythm as well as layers of mist where violins and celestial voices imprison the ascent of our emotional adrenalin. Simply magical, "A Return to Cromley Hall" spreads its charms with a dramatic intensity which makes its effect. Listening to it just after the whole of I Remain will give you this impression of an album continuity. Simply great! "Walking with Marie Lairre" is a remix of We Walked with Marie Lairre done by Ross Baker. We can feel here the distant fragrances of this title which has closed A Diary of Occurrences, in particular at the level of the orchestrations, but it's more of a recording field with sound elements stuck in dark and lugubrious effect of winds and voices. There is always this twinkling melody which seems to be frozen in this decoration a bit surrealist which has all appearances of a soundtrack in order to narrate a story. If one likes the samplings of various noises in a Dark Ambient style, it's the kind of title that will please you undoubtedly. "Walk to the Rectory" is literally a walking, in real time, towards the presbytery which was recorded with the surrounding noises of it. Even if both ideas are brilliant, they are stripped of music, set apart for some bits stuck in "Walking with Marie Lairre". It should be noted that "Walk to the Rectory" was added later because initially “A Return to Cromley Hall” was an E.P. of 36 minutes. But no matter, this suite to A Diary of Occurrences offers both of The Glimmer Room's faces with a music to capsize you the soul and with experiments which allowed the tenebrous English musician to reach the doors of fame. If you have loved I Remain, you have to hear "A Return to Cromley Hall".Sylvain Lupari (July 24th, 2017)synth&sequences.comYou will find this album on the Bandcamp page of The Glimmer Roomhere

dimanche 23 juillet 2017

“The music of Cathedral is built on 2 mosaic of music which interlink peaceful moments and more turbulent ones in a very intense and theatrical way”

1 Cathedral Part I 33:102 Cathedral Part II 23:46AD
Music ‎– AD192(CD/DDL 53:56)***½(Dark Ambient Music)The last studio opus of Robert Fox, Still Waters, had fairly seduced and moved me. An album which had quite an effect on me…And still have! It was rather particular because usually his albums take time to operate their charms on the bed of my emotions. Why? Maybe because of this rich orchestral texture and of its abundance of sonic elements which surround a music sometimes very melancholic and on other times, too much pulled towards a strong theatrical aspect. Like this “Cathedral”. But it doesn't matter! In the end I always end to be seduced and transported in the country of his imagination. Like here with “Cathedral” and its immense, as much as intense, mosaic of atmospheres and melodies as dark as very difficult to get in. The basic idea behind this last album from the one who gave us Asafa is to create a theatrical atmosphere around a cathedral and of its uncountable secrets, as its secret vaults. There where are blowing winds that give us cold in the back and give us also some uncountable circles of sweat. And nevertheless, there where also shine artificial rainbows reflected by the multicolored stained-glass windows and are mumbling some murmurs from angels. In fact, the white and the black, the mysticism as the chthonian, are engaged a perpetual fight inside these august walls.A Capuchin psalm loosens the first part of "Cathedral Part I". Knockings of doors, layers of angelic voices and a delicate lullaby strummed on a keyboard are the reflections of what waits for the hearing visitor of “Cathedral”. I write first part, because the two long sonic rivers are interrupted by various phases which go from purely meditative music to a very claustrophobic sort of atmospheres where knockings, monastery bell tinkling, hollow breezes and chthonian voices become the counterweight of more aerial elements of ambiences. So, the listener who jumps of surprise in several places, stays on the alert and concentrates on the sound effects and on these small ends of melodies always chewed on by a keyboard and which are the anchoring point of an opus extremely difficult to ingest if we are not before all a lover of dark ambient music and of some priories atmospheres. At this level Robert Fox offers very beautiful meditative passages of which a very nice one after another ascetic hymn near the 14th minute of "Cathedral Part I". Doubtless the most beautiful meditative moment of this part. "Cathedral Part II" is more musical and a little more intense, I think it's the best way to get into the moods of this album, with some strong dramatic and theatrical moments. The contemplative phases are longer here, so we jump less often, and also more melodious. The bells of gathering for the religious psalms are even musical. What can I add more? There is also a better union between the harmonious part of “Cathedral” and this angelic choir which is less present than the Franciscan one but which remains just as much, otherwise more, attractive. In brief, to begin with "Cathedral Part II" is a very good idea if we want to tame with more ease this last album from Robert Fox which is quite troubling by moments but all the same rather effective.Sylvain Lupari (July 22nd, 2017)synth&sequences.comYou will find this album on the AD Music web shop here

vendredi 21 juillet 2017

“A very good selection of 14 tracks slightly redone with a new vivacity in the tones and in the beats which has everything to please the fans of a goof EM Synth-pop style”

1 Message from Me 4:38 2 Echoes from the Past 5:18 3 Remembrance 4:42 4 Electronic Secrets Part IV 4:425 Memory Shift 5:196 Electronic Secrets Part I 6:387 Crying 4:268 Promethium 4:569 Message to Poland 3:4610 Ripples 4:3111 Iceman’s Melody 4:1212 Ice Tunes 5:1113 Heart and Soul 5:3814 Message to You 4:26AD Music ‎– AD187(CD/DDL 67:39) ***½ (Jarre Synth-Pop style)Glenn Main is quite a showman! An entertainer as we say, who knows how to entertain his public during a show with a judicious choice of titles. He reproduces not only the musical genre of his idol, he also wants to make a good show like Jean Michel Jarre with what he has in hand. “Live in Dortmund” was recorded during a concert at Kulturkirche in Dortmund (Germany) on February 6th 2015 and proposes a very nice collection of 14 titles comprised in Glenn Main's discography. From Electronic Secret to Into the Blue, which was to be released some 4 months farther, the music is played with a more current touch, Electronic Secret having been on the market in 2008, and especially a refreshment at the level of sequences and with a rhythmic more accurate for a music performed in concert. It's accompanied of his son, Nickolas Main, that the Norwegian synthesist scrolls a series of tracks which gives us the taste to move the hips if not to dance slightly. There are no moments of ambient moods here but some very melancholic ballads which are well inserted here and there, giving a second breath to a rhythmic vision which remains lively in its genre of Jarre electronic synth-pop. We feel the influences of the latter quite everywhere, in particular from the albums Oxygene, Magnetic Fields and Révolutions and these percussions which ring like blows of hammer on an anvil. What's interesting is that the titles are not an exact copy of what we hear on the studio albums. The skeleton remains the same, but the structure of the effects and of the harmonies, in some places, is a bit different whereas the rhythm is returned with more strength and with more vivacity in the sequences in other places, particularly during the last 4 tracks where Torsten Abel joins the Main duet.I am not really a follower of Glenn Main music. I think that he tries too much to imitate Jean Michel Jarre and when he arrives there, that always gives me the taste to listen the music of Jarre. But he has known how to create, in the course of his discography, titles which hang on and also to get loose from the imitator etiquette in order to give us a very good album in Into the Blue which aims to be more personal. Thus, the collection of 14 titles of “Live in Dortmund” is created to please a public who likes the commercial hits of Jarre. A music which hangs onto our feet with good rhythms and good melodies. It's very enjoyable to listen to and the updating of tracks from Electronic Secret and Message gives a good energetic dose to the titles selected on these 2 albums. Initially, the album was to be named The Live Best of … And it's exactly what we have here.Sylvain Lupari (July 20th, 2017)synth&sequences.comYou will find this album on the AD Music web shop here

jeudi 20 juillet 2017

“Nord goes rock! Progressive electronic rock? Yes and even psychedelic E-Rock. One has it all in one album!”

1 Aurora 15:392 The Lighthouse 10:543 The Hidden Garden of Semiramis 11:274 Petra 8:145 Colossus 12:546 Sunrize (Morning in the Hills) 7:40Nord Music(DDL 66:48)****½(Berlin School loaded of various rock styles)I don't know if you are like me; but I rarely read the small notes at the foot of a page. I should have done it! Thus, I would have known what to expect from this last opus of Nord. Nevertheless, the adventure starts very well with a wind of mysteries which rises from nowhere. It blows with strength, as long as its breezes drill our eardrums. A beautiful movement of sequences wakes up immediately and makes its keys skipping in a delicious hypnotic swing of the pendulum. Effects and noises wrap this rhythmic harmonious from where escapes a wave from a hybrid synth with some harmonies of flutes which are getting lost in some hardly perceptible layers of voices. The movement of "Aurora" is waddling with perfection, adjusting its pace with an approach sensibly more inspired. Like if a threat was hidden somewhere! The ritornello of sequences swirls now like the dance of a viper without venom in a delicate spiral where the intensity remains hung on well on this introduction charmingly minimalist. This movement metamorphoses near the 6th minute point, showing a vigor renewed with this serpentine of sequences which became clearly more spasmodic. And that goes fast. Faster and faster! Layers of mist are sleeping at the door of this feverish movement. And it's there that we notice an electric guitar which spits heavy riffs and long resounding laments. Sztakics István Attila understood! The Rumanian synth man who is before all a keyboard player in a rock band had the sting for rock. For electronic progressive rock! But how to bring his legion of fans to it? And that's how came the idea to compose a title with a very electronic introduction and to bring it towards a furious rock with riffs of a six-strings which roars with the anger of the best guitarists of progressive rock and with a mad drummer who beats the hell with a solo as much furious which is sculptured by the Logic pro X software. The transition is perfect! The illusion is just as much. We are thrown all over the walls and floors with this violent phase of electronic rhythm in this "Aurora" which still remains in the territories of EM with a guitar versus a synth. That's less obvious here, that will be more in the title-track. Afterward, things get more complicated because “The Hidden Garden of Semiramis”, an album dedicated besides to some of the most beautiful world wonders, dives into an infrequent universe where EM shares its effects with a rock as much progressive than psychedelic.We like The Doors? We like these delicious languishing and suggestive movements among which the perfumes of the East are making the hips waving with sensualism? I ask because the fragrances and the tone of The Doors are filling the next 2 titles of “The Hidden Garden of Semiramis” are sounding very much like in the time of RayManzarek's organ tones. Like the hopping rhythm of "The Lighthouse" which is also scented of the aromas from these psychedelic years to which Iron Butterfly hangs on its most beautiful coat of arms here. The structure of rhythm is divided between EM, for the sequences wild and quiet, and for a solid rock more psychedelic with keyboard chords which scroll at the speed of sequences. And there is this guitar of Kertész Huba, brilliant and audacious and of which the presence here throws again the famous debate synth / guitar, which spits incisive solos and heavy riffs in a musical saga which surpasses the quiet electronic and progressive rock of Axess. In the end, it's very good, even rather convincing, and this duel between Huba and Nord, in particular the percussive effects, is at the height of what we can hope of a fusion between EM and a more psychedelic rock. The title-track is even more convincing with an evolution which embrace the three dominant phases of “The Hidden Garden of Semiramis”. The finale is very rock and very electronic, the sequences here are more furious than the percussions, and is going to ruffle your hair with a splendid and noisy duel between the synth of Nord and the guitar, more vicious on the other hand, of Kertész Huba. "Petra" a is title which stays more in the electronic style with a very beautiful structure which progresses like a cosmic bolero. Sequences are agile, lively and keen. Structuring a rhythmic which seems to go adrift they are the cradle of a kind of ethereal ballad encrusted by good solos of a six-strings and by beautiful harmonies which are sometimes tinted by the melancholy of Vangelis. After an introduction sculpted on the model of Wish you were Here from Pink Floyd, in the genre not in the tone, "Colossus" flies away like a solid progressive rock where this time the synths, the sequencer and the Logic pro X percussions dominate such as a pack of wolves starving for purely electronic rhythms. "Sunrize (Morning in the Hills)" concludes this surprising album of Nord with sibylline layers which float like morphic sound gases and with the fragrances of Vangelis, one of Sztakics IstvánAttila's main inspiration. If the introduction marinates between the atmospheres of Chariots of Fire and of Blade Runner, the music will not stay in ambient mode for a very long time. A line of sequences tries to charm these synthesized tunes with a serpentine shape which makes its keys oscillate in a spasmodic way. The percussions arrive at the same time as the synth hesitates on the way of filtering the tones of its harmonies, carrying "Sunrize (Morning in the Hills)" towards a structure more electronic than rock and of which the rock aspect depends only of the electronic drum kit. Undoubtedly the weakest link of an album which amazes, knocks out and seduces with its skillful fusion between rock, psychedelic rock of the American West coast of the 60's and a very Berlin School EM. Recommended!Sylvain Lupari (July 19th, 2017)synth&sequences.comYou will find this album on Nord Bandcamp page here

mardi 18 juillet 2017

“The Dark Path is at the crossroads of creativity with a very solid EM opus where the ages melt themselves in a musical scenario which allies the essence of EM big names”

1 Mandala 16:492 Endemonic Howls 7:493 Auf Sibernen Pfaden 27:364 Blissful 12:155 Ionic Master 15:12Neu
Harmony: NHR 046(CD 79:41) ****½(Berlin School & World Music)A collaboration between a rising figure and another one more dominant of the Berlin School style EM has enough to feed the passions. Composed between 2013 and 2015, “The Dark Path” stages the music of Michael Brückner and Alien Nature (Wolfgang Barkowski) in an album which inhales these flavors of Klaus Schulze and Tangerine Dream in a universe of nebulosity pushed by very good movements of sequenced rhythms which seduced me with a big S!"Mandala" opens as in the nice time with slow veils filled of tones of old organ which go adrift like the movements of some slender sonic birds in search of our eardrums. Electronic noises and fine modulations, as well as another shaded wave carrier of faded voices, give life to this long prelude of ambiences which floats now with this soft flavor of Klaus Schulze's cosmic drift. The first beatings wake up at the 5th minute, spreading a base of soporific rhythm which stays prisoner of these luxurious Mephistophelian layers. Curiously, these beatings seem to awaken the faded voices which add now a touch of esotericism. A line of bass sequences is beating in the background. Fitting with the precious modulations which give so many charms to "Mandala", this line swirls among industrial noises before running mad like a cyborg through a metallurgical wall. Slamming percussions impose a more contemporary structure of rhythm, while the effects of synth stay in these effects ossuaries which charmed as much as created a sensation of fright when I listened to this music the head and the imagination decorated of blue smoke. These effects are transformed into Arabian tunes and the rhythm becomes more lively, pushing "Mandala" far from its lands of atmospheres but beyond those of "Endemonic Howls" whose pattern of morphic dance is fed by good effects of percussions and a suggestive line of bass sequences. This title is more in the psybient kind with an always dark approach which is inspired by tears of synth and by the effects of a sonic brook in suspension and of which the droplets run away in a horizontal passage. If the rhythm stays quiet, and finally falls asleep towards the finale, it remains very interesting to hear in night light, because of an ambient tribal approach which reminds to me a good Steve Roach moment.“The Dark Path” is built in a mosaic of effects of effects of dark ambiences and rhythms of around 80 minutes where every title binds its elements of atmospheres. The breaths which open "Auf Sibernen Pfaden" establishes a climate of mystery and plunges us in the golden years of Tangerine Dream; periods Phaedra and Stratosfear, especially with the galloping rhythm which emerges from layers of mist after the 4th minute. Comes then a revival moment of the analog years with this structure of rhythm which inflates among numerous effects of mist, of vapor and other effects at the same time cosmic and luciferian, in particular the noises of thunders and of ectoplasms which extricate themselves from layers of glaucous vibes. Ignoring the filters of those effects, a synth lights its harmony section in order to blow splendid solos which light the wilder rhythmic portion of "Auf Sibernen Pfaden". It's a superb Berlin School that we have here my friends! This odyssey of dreams pursues its road of charms until the sibylline atmospheres get a hold of the rhythm, making it as much smothered as its first beatings. A choir of chthonian voices draws then the landscape of "Auf Sibernen Pfaden" which, in 27 minutes, makes us travel towards the summits of the 70's Berlin School style. This is a great track which alone worth the price of the CD manufactured and produced by the English label New Harmony. How to talk about "Blissful" without speaking about its introduction and about its multiple reflections of sequences which sparkle as in these Tangerine Dream's concerts in 1986 and these elements of Jean Michel Jarre's atmospheres in Magnetic Fields. Although darker, the soundscape invades immediately our ears with this structure of stagnant sequences which serves as support for other wonderful synth solos. "Blissful" pours its last charms into "Ionic Master" and its more contemporary tribal structure of rhythm. A surprising and lively title, with good effects of melodies blown in heathen flutes, which sets free a really nice aspect of velocity in its atmospheres and in this rhythm, all the same rather stationary, and which reminds us a closer Klaus Schulze of the 90-00 years.With names such as Michael Brückner and Wolfgang Barkowski, the expectations can only be high. And the duet answers marvels with a strong album to which we savor from the very first breaths of "Mandala" until the finale of "Ionic Master". “The Dark Path” is at the crossroads of creativity with a very solid EM opus where the ages melt themselves in a musical scenario which allies the essence of the big names of the art, Klaus Schulze to Jarre via Tangerine Dream and Steve Roach, in an approach where the past is of use as carburetor to a new form of World EM.Sylvain Lupari (July 18th, 2017)synth&sequences.comYou will find this album on Synth Music Direct web shop here

Members of this Blog

Qui suis-je

Bonjour!
My name is Sylvain Lupari from Joliette in Quebec (Canada). I’m known as Phaedream all over the Internet since the beginning of 2000 where I started to write reviews. In 2005, I joined the French Webzine Guts of Darkness and on August 2010 I created a Blog, Synth & Sequences, which has reached the point of 1 000,000 visitors on February 2017 where I also wrote my 1354th review. In French and in English, I wrote more than reviews of EM albums.
This Blog is a huge success and reference about the music which sets my mind free over the years. Too many chronicles, so I have to split this Blog in several sections. Robert Schroeder is the first to welcome my thoughts on Webpress.
So, welcome to this part of my Blog Synth&Sequences which is devoted to the music, the tones and sounds of Aachen’s own Robert Schroeder.
Here you will find informations about his career and discography and latest news as well as deep reviews about his music, his albums.
My only wish is to guide you through his impressive career and may I suggest to visit regularly my Blog Synth & Sequences for more updates on EM.